IIOJK authorities’ callous attitude towards farmers draws criticism; Iltija joins protest in Islamabad
Srinagar: In Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK), the callous and indifferent attitude of the authorities towards Kashmiri farmers has triggered strong criticism after Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) leader Iltija Mufti joined the ongoing protest against the eviction of cultivators from paddy land in Islamabad district.
According to Kashmir Media Service, Iltija, daughter of PDP president Mehbooba Mufti, visited the protesting farmers in the paddy fields at Tulkhan area of Bijbehara and planted rice saplings alongside them to express solidarity with the aggrieved cultivators. Local farmers said that they were being restricted from cultivating paddy on the land by the IIOJK administration.
While the authorities claim the land is government property, the farmers maintained that they have been cultivating it for decades and that their livelihoods are directly dependent on it. The protesters said that, under a systematic policy, people are being evicted from the lands they have tilled for years, describing the move as an attempt to economically weakening the local population and affecting their basic means of survival.
During the symbolic protest, Iltija Mufti criticized the administration’s actions, saying that on the one hand it has failed to provide employment opportunities to the Kashmiri youth, while on the other it is snatching land from those who have been sustaining their families through agriculture for generations.
She said the locals have been growing crops on these lands for decades and share a deep economic and emotional connection bond with the land. “Farmers do not have guns but paddy husks in their hands, they cannot be deprived of their ancestral heritage and livelihood,” she said.
Iltija further said that the administration was using police to act against innocent citizens, adding that about a dozen farmers of the area had been detained, which she termed unacceptable. She warned that if the detained persons were not released, the party will stage a protest sit-in outside the police station.
